I can't confirm the story......but long ago, Nong Prajak was basically a swamp. Several years ago a croc was found in the lotus lake in Kumphawaphi.....but not known if it was someone's pet that was released.
The 'interesting' Nongprajak story that I've been told.....by Dr. Somsak who seems to know his Udon history.....is that the still vacant lot at the 4way intersection, just down from Beyond Cafe, was where criminals were executed....long ago. That could be why the piece of land remains vacant to this day.

did a loop around the island park just last week. First visit I've made in years... All nicely landscaped with two separate exercise/kiddie parks with one being a large "Dino Park" with lots of kiddie standard slides, swings, climbing towers etc.. I was a bit surprised to see one of the gardening crew driving a quite new John Deere zero-point mower that look well maintained.. I can remember my first loop around the "island" back in late 1997 when the government was excavating the lake and lining the sides with rocks to I'd guess make it a better reservoir for the city..

Now my first visit to Nong Prajak when it was part swamp and part reservoir was back in November of 1973 where the GF and I went for Loy Kratong to float our Kratongs one evening. We launched them into the lake where a wind floated them apart then together while we watched them fade into the darkness. The GF said, "hmm, that means we'll be together for a long time..." I sniffed at that a bit.. Little did I know, 45 years later, we'd still be together...

picture is from the northeast corner of Nong Prajak about August of 74..

the still vacant lot at the 4way intersection, just down from Beyond Cafe, was where criminals were executed....long ago. That could be why the piece of land remains vacant to this day.

I heard the same story but according to 3 Thai friends of mine (one of which was a former Udon Kasikorn banker) who are part of the Thai Chinese community the story is not at all true. The former banker knows the owner of the property who is just not interested in selling it.

One thing this lockdown has done for me is make me appreciate again the simple things in life , that we all take for granted as the norm . A simple walk through the park , sitting in a coffee shop watching the world go by , stuff like that .
I hope that didnt come across as bitter , or angry even , its just my personal observation . For those of you who only see the bad in people no malice was intended .

I went to Nong Prajak for the first time in about 9 weeks yesterday evening.
I,d say it was about 90% full from what it was before.... only about 10% wore face masks,although some of them were joggers.
How can you run with a face mask on? It's difficult enough walking around Tesco's.
I didn't notice if the foot massage places were open. They were certainly shut at the end of last week.
If I drive past in a day or two I,ll let you know.

Just when I thought our chance had passed,you go and save the best for last.